Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Explain the general significance of information in contemporary society.
- Provide an informed and critical perspective on information phenomena and processes.
- Understand the nature and social roles of the information professions.
- Identify contemporary issues and their relationship with information and the information field.
Course Schedule
| Date | Theme/reading to complete before class | Class activities |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 14 | Chapter 1. The Information Field | Introduction Course overview |
| Sep 21 | Chapter 2. What is Information? | Short lecture group exercise |
| Sep 28 | Chapter 3. Information Issues | Guest lecture by Dr. Jennifer Grek-Martin |
| Oct 5 | Chapter 10. Information and Democracy | Guest lecture by Dr. Jason Hannan |
| Oct 19 Teams link |
Chapter 5. Work in the Information Society Chapter 6. Information in Organizations |
Guest lecture by Kellie Dalton |
| Oct 26 Teams link |
Chapter 7. The Information Economy | Guest lecture by Dan Philips |
| Nov 2 Teams link |
Chapter 4. Humans in an Information Society Chapter 8. The Attention Economy |
Short lecture + group discussions |
| Nov 16 Teams link |
Chapter 11. Information Justice | Guest lecture by Alison Brown |
| Nov 23 Teams link |
TBD | Guest lecture by Maddie Hare and Janet Music |
| Nov 30 Teams link |
Chapter 9. Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News | Short lecture group exercise |
| Dec 7 Teams link |
TBD | Guest lecture by Coel Conrad |
| Dec 8 Teams link |
N/A | Fun. |
Assignments
IMPORTANT NOTE: The assignments will be updated in the next few days, the current ones reflect essentially what the assignments will be for this course, but be aware that they will slightly change.
| Assignment | Due date | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Participation self-assessment - Part 1 | Friday, September 25, 2026 | 7.5% |
| Analysis of an information setting | Friday, October 16, 2026 | 30% |
| Participation self-assessment - Part 2 | Friday, October 30, 2026 | 5% |
| Essay plan | Friday, October 30, 2026 | 10% |
| Essay | Friday, December 11, 2026 | 40% |
| Participation self-assessment - Part 3 | Friday, December 11, 2026 | 7.5% |
Other Important Information and Resources
- You can access this course website without going through Brightspace with the following URL: https://pmongeon.github.io/information-in-society/.
- The official course syllabus.
- A Zotero library with all the references in the course website, organized by chapter.
- Use Zotero (or another reference manager of your choice) to store your references and cite them in your work. (not mandatory, but highly recommended).
- Use APA style for your references in all assignments.
- You can use this Word template to write your assignments (not mandatory). Whether you use this template or not, I strongly recommend using Word styles to format and structure your document.
- Have fun.
Acknowledgements
The textbook would not have been possible without the financial support, through an OER grant, of the Dalhousie Center for Learning and Teaching and the Dalhousie Libraries. It also would not have been possible without the help and support of Dr. Samantha Taylor, senior instructor and co-lead on the project, who orchestrated the writing of the case studies included throughout the book. It also would not have been possible without the hard work of Janine McGregor, Maddie Hare, Poppy Riddle, and Tessa Biesterfeld, alumni from Dalhousie’s Master of Information program, who wrote the case studies and helped draft some of the chapters. Special thanks to Janine McGregor, who played a leading role in the planning and writing of the textbook.